Rise of the communities!
2005 was the great year of the blogger. This global communication trend swept though almost every nation with online connections, and released a flood of personal opinions, reviews, public quarrels - and tons and tons of private photos.
It is no surprise that many of our common tools-of-the-trade were founded in those years. For example, Wordpress started off as a blog-publishing tool in 2004 - but quickly developed into a full-blown content management system that is now used by more than 60 million websites, including one third of the top 10 million websites.
Although not directly connected to blogging, more services of a similar kind was quickly launched in the following years. Facebook was launched in February 2004, YouTube was launched almost exactly one year later, and subsequently Twitter an additional 13 months later.
To make a long story short: this is how influencer marketing all began.
Since then, we have gotten used to influencers telling their followers which brands and products they like and dislike. And we have also gotten used to them offering their services to us marketers that are working for such brands.
But something has happened lately. Influencer marketing is not described as black magic anymore. Instead, more and more companies start talking about building awareness of their own through brand communities, e.g. a common platform with engaging content aimed at consumers and fans. At Futency, we have our own experts who know all about communities - so we had a chat with Emma and Henrik.
“Influencer marketing can be both good and bad. If you are able to pinpoint that exact person, it can lead to great results - but influencer marketing also tends to become more expensive. At the same time, there’s a growing debate about fake followers and how influencers work with several brands at once. This makes it harder to follow up on the results and develop your communication, as well as keep track of you ROI,” says Henrik Roos, social media manager at Futency.
“But once you have established your own community in social media – you own the platform. You only pay once for content in the long run, and you have full control of your data, your statistics, your follow-ups and your ROI,” he adds.
Emma Silfver is the project manager for many of Futency's customer projects around brand communities. She believes it’s important for every brand to find a voice of its own.
“An influencer is a personality. He or she stands for something in a context: but if that context is lost or changed, what does that do for your brand? What if an influencer is working with a delicate brand of yours - and for example online gambling at the same time. Does it change anything? It can be tough to control. Sometimes the best thing is to find your own voice - to become your own influencer. It’s hard work, but if you succeed there is a lot to be gained, says Emma Silfver,” project manager for many of our customer projects around brand communities.
The fact that influencer marketing has been criticized lately only strengthens the point. Influencers are both independent from and dependent of the brand they are talking about, but exactly when is not always clear. With a brand community of your own, you own the voice and may control it.
So where do you begin, if you need to start from scratch with a brand community of your own?
“The simple answer is: call an agency and start with the strategy. Do not cheat. Who is your target audience? What do you want to tell them? And what can you learn from them?” says Henrik Roos.
“Also, try different messages and formats. Social media is fast, so you may very quickly see results and compare them. Once you find things that stick: focus on those. It’s the good old ”throw pasta on the wall and see what sticks”-method,” says Emma Silfver.